1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to sonar systems and more particularly to apparatus, methods, media and signals for producing an amplitude value for use in controlling illumination of a pixel on a display and apparatus and methods for controlling a sonar transducer unit.
2. Description of Related Art
Underwater imaging systems are often used to map or display underwater features such as an ocean floor and to detect the presence of underwater bodies, such as fish. Some conventional underwater imaging systems generate a sonar signal and underwater objects reflect the sonar signal, producing reflected sonar signals, which may be received at a plurality of array elements spaced apart in a receiver array, for example. The receiver array produces signals that are interpreted to produce a display image depicting the underwater object.
Conventional underwater imaging systems typically include a beamformer that delays the signals produced by each element of the receiver array by an appropriate amount to correct for differences in arrival times of sound wave reflections at the array. The array elements closer to a reflecting object receive a reflected sound wave from that object sooner than array elements farther away. Thus, the signals produced by the array elements must be delayed by amounts dependent upon the respective differences in travel time for the reflected sound wave to reach the respective array elements in order to combine the signals produced by the array elements to produce a composite signal indicative of the reflection received at the array. The appropriate amount of delay required for each received signal varies with the angle of view of the array.
To achieve the above mentioned delays, some conventional underwater imaging systems pass the signals produced by the array elements through a delay line having a fixed delay, such as a coaxial cable. The use of fixed delays, however, can only provide the appropriate delay for one viewing angle. Selecting among a variety of fixed delay lines associated with corresponding viewing angles increases the size and expense of the underwater imaging system.
Some conventional underwater imaging systems digitally sample the signals produced by the elements of the array to produce digital representations of the received signals. These digital representations may then be digitally delayed. The digital representations may be digitally delayed directly in the time domain or may be transformed to the frequency domain such as by a Fourier Transform, multiplied by a phase factor, and then transformed back to the time domain such as by an inverse Fourier Transform. The delay amounts may be calculated using, for example, correlation or filter functions implemented in the time domain or frequency domain, or may be pre-calculated delay amounts stored, for example, in look-up tables. However, sampling rates sufficiently high to digitally represent the received signals without introducing quantization error may not be feasible. Furthermore, delay amounts equal to a multiple of the interval of time between samples may not be sufficiently accurate. Attempts to digitally delay the digital representations by delay amounts which are not multiples of the sampling interval require specialized hardware components such as shift registers arranged in a parallel configuration which increases the cost, size and complexity of such imaging systems.
Some conventional underwater imaging systems use mixers to translate the frequency of the received signals to a lower frequency, thereby permitting the use of a lower sampling rate when digitally sampling the received signals. However, the problem of inaccurate delay when the delay amounts are multiples of the sampling interval is exacerbated by the use of a lower sampling rate. Furthermore, frequency translation alters the relationship between the period of the signal and the differences in the arrival times of the respective received signals.